Inappropriate Material Used to Groom and Blackmail Children Online

A 13-year-old girl, who suffered from behavioral deviation, used to run away from home, go out with young people, and when she went back to counseling and education, Dr. Nadia Boehnad, she revealed that she had begun her deviant path when she received video pornography through the Snapchat app, when she was nine.

Dubai Police revealed precautions taken by the Department of Cybercrime to reduce cyber-crimes against children, using digital patrol to track any potential risks before they occur, targeting people involved in uploading and sharing child porn content, and earlier announcing that a person had lured nine children through the Fortnite game, attempting to blackmail them after obtaining footage of child pornography, after enticing them with money to increase their points.

The court found him unemployed, dragged a child electronically and forced him to take a picture of himself and send pictures to him, and then later mocked him with those pictures, but the child turned to his older brother who filed a complaint with the authorities, after his brother was subjected to severe psychological pressure by the accused who was sentenced to life imprisonment. "Emarat Al Youm" is raising the case through this investigation to raise awareness of the risk of leaving children vulnerable to being dragged electronically with fertilizers for subsequent sexual exploitation.

Experts and experts, through Emarat Al Youm, warned of the psychological, ethical and security risks that children face when exposed to pornography at a young age, stressing that it is a moral shock to them, starting right from the moment they are exposed to such material, be it photos, movies or links, pointing out that this material is widespread and easily accessible via social networking apps like YouTube and Instagram, with the biggest risk coming through the TikTok platform.

They pointed out that the greatest risk is the likelihood of children being targeted by adults for such material, with the aim of luring them later to be sexually blackmailed or seduced at an age when the child does not have a sufficient distinction between right and wrong.

A cybersecurity expert stressed that there is an urgent need at the moment to promote what could be called "digital education", which requires a digital father and a digital mother, who have a comprehensive knowledge of all the digital media that a child uses, especially electronic games because they are a key gateway to attraction and blackmail.

While a legal adviser explained that recent legislation to combat rumors and cybercrime addressed these risks in clear texts reflecting the legislator's understanding of these threats, and called for deterrent penalties for anyone involved in inciting or seducing children with pornography.

Specifically, psychological and educational counselor Dr. Nadia Boehnad said that pornography in its various forms, be it pictures, videos or links, is extremely dangerous to children and adolescents, and negatively affects them psychologically, morally, and morally.

She added that the risk is not related to a specific age, but it starts from the moment the child is exposed to this pornography, whether a child is three years old or in his teens, because pornographic films or images raise many questions, generate curiosity about more, and turn the search for more into a desire to practice them.

And she affirmed that she recognized these risks from the fact that she dealt with cases of children of different ages, like a 13-year-old girl who has behavioral deviations, frequently runs away from her family home, befriends young people, and sacrifices everything to herself.

And when she asked why she committed these actions, to track down the turning point in her personality, it turned out that she received pornographic content from an older person when she was nine, through a social networking app. She explained that for a child, pornography is strange and fun at the same time, exposing them to things older than their age, transporting them to a mental, psychological and moral stage that doesn't fit their age, and giving birth to a desire to practice what they see in these films or images, thus making them an easy target for the mentally disturbed.

As for how to protect children from these threats, Dr. Boehnad said, we need to realize that protecting children requires a lot of effort, because the risks exist when there are social networking apps that have no sort of separation or control, as there are people who target children through platforms like YouTube.

Specifically, she warned the TechTalk platform that many cases, especially girls, are exposed to inappropriate content through this platform, which is completely different in the country where it was launched from the rest of the world, as China has a special version suitable for children that includes educational content, competitions and useful challenges, while it is a pornographic platform in other countries.

She pointed out the need to impose a clear system for children to use devices, whether electronic games or otherwise, noting that recent studies have shown that the number of hours of online gaming should not exceed seven hours a week, while children in the UAE play up to 15 hours a day.

She stressed the need for parents to be aware of the need to impose some kind of moral principle in the home, through dialogue and friendship with the child, and building a wall of trust with him, so that they can tell their parents about any problem they encounter.

She pointed out that the problem is that the majority of children are complaining about their parents' quarrels about what they are experiencing, fear of punishment, lack of proper guidance, child authentication, and familiarity with the digital environment in which they live.

She went on to say that there are measures that the state must adopt, such as blocking games and platforms that represent barriers to access to child pornography, because their mental image is shaped at an early age, and protecting them is everyone's duty. For its part, cybersecurity expert Sami A Nour told Emarat Al Youm that the majority of media is concerned with increasing viewing space at the expense of purifying the content it displays through, and reaching children easily. He added that apart from being uncontrollable, she realized that there was a potential for addiction to the content it provided, and that it had a negative effect on the brain. He pointed out that the UAE is one of the top 10 countries with adequate protective measures against pornography, but there is still a problem with some digital production platforms like Netflix, where a child can be exposed to films, images or spoiled links, which requires an international pause, because it is difficult to combat by one country.

He explained that there are gaps where children are lured into the absence of parents or not having the awareness necessary to protect their children, such as electronic games, where adults include children with digital gifts or help in certain games, and gradually control them. Sami stressed that there are clear steps that parents must follow to protect their children, most importantly imposing real controls that include setting times and places to use smartphones or tablets, not to use them in bathrooms, indoors, or late at night. He pointed out that this censorship should be smart and tolerant, promoting what could be called "digital education", which requires digital parents to be aware of all the electronic media that children use, whether it's phones or electronic games. He explained that it's important to entrench critical thinking in a child, not to say "Don't talk to strangers", but to calmly discuss the consequences of talking to strangers, and that virtual strangers, like strangers in fact, should be avoided.

He revealed that the biggest mistake many parents make is one-time awareness, giving advice to their son and then stopping, which is a big mistake, but you have to follow the child periodically, asking him about his day and events and the people he's been talking to, and seeing his everyday experiences, both in the real world and in the virtual world. He stressed the need for parents to also be aware of their children's online games, and to give them gifts that these games impose instead of receiving them from strangers. Emarat Al Youm has monitored several actions and cases involving children, including a proactive action taken by the Cybercrime Prevention Department of the Dubai Police's General Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Investigation, to reduce crimes that could target children online, through electronic patrols that track any potential risks before they occur.

Dubai Police officially joined an international team set up by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to fight cybercrime against children, with the participation of police services from 13 countries around the world, and was provided with the latest monitoring and tracking software and applications, and a common international database and information was established to achieve maximum cooperation. Earlier, she charged nine children aged between nine and 10 with trying to blackmail them after receiving pictures of them, using malicious methods to lure them with money to increase their points and score in the game, but was dropped by the Dubai police thanks to informing the tenth child.

• A nine-year-old girl suffers from deviant behavior because of an inappropriate video.

• Demands to promote digital education and warn parents of frequent errors in awareness-raising.

Severe penalties for targeting children with pesticides.

Judge and legal adviser Mohammad Najib said that the decree of Law No. 34 on the fight against rumors and cybercrime, for the first time, used the word "children" to express crimes that could target them rather than the word "events", reflecting a great deal of interest in this age group that is the pillar of any society.

He explained that Article 35 of the law provides comprehensive protection against the increasingly common crime of targeting children with pornographic material. Anyone who incites, entices or assists a child to broadcast, prepare or send such material through an information network or information-technology tool faces at least two years in prison and a fine of between AED 250,000 and AED 1 million, or either penalty.

The penalty shall be provisional imprisonment and a fine not exceeding one million dirhams if the child is the subject of pornography prepared or sent,

The child does not ask the victim what he or she is doing as a result of incitement and seduction.

Naguib pointed out that this substance represents a major deterrent to psychotic offenders who target children, seduce them with such substances, as is happening in several countries, and is a way to recruit them, and possibly blackmail them later.

He went on to say that Article 36 of the same law provided additional protection for the child and proactively deterred those who targeted them, stating that he is punished by imprisonment for a period of at least six months, a fine of at least AED 150,000, and not more than AED 1 million, for each who intentionally acquired child pornography using an electronic information system, information network, website or one of the IT media. He stressed that many psychological and criminal studies have shown that possession of child pornography is an indicator of potential exposure, so developed countries, including the UAE, are taking strict action against those involved in this practice.

Source: Emarat Al Youm